LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Gold fell below $1,600 an ounce onWednesday, a level it broke above last week after euro-friendlycomments from the European Central Bank, as speculation lessenedthat the Federal Reserve would hint at a new round of monetarystimulus later in the day.

Analysts had hoped the Fed would give more guidance on thelikelihood of gold-friendly action like monetary easing at theend of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, keeping pressure onlong-term interest rates and curbing the dollar.

Spot gold was down 1 percent at $1,597.04 an ounce at1351 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for August deliverywere down $14.00 an ounce at $1,600.60.

The rally that took the metal to its highest since mid-Juneat $1,629.10 an ounce last week stalled against resistance. Goldremains within the $150 range it has held to for the last 3-1/2months.

"We'll probably be in this range-trading environment untilthe end of August, beginning of September, when we are lookingfor some more measures for central banks," Deutsche Bank analystMichael Lewis said.

"By September, the possibility of more monetary action couldbe the trigger for a bit of a recovery to take hold."

Until then, the metal is chiefly being driven by theeuro/dollar exchange rate, with gains in the U.S. unit makingdollar-priced commodities more expensive for other currencyholders, and gold less attractive as an alternative asset.

The dollar briefly rose against the euro as data showed theU.S. private sector added 163,000 jobs in July, beatingforecasts for 120,000, though it quickly steadied.

The euro had already rolled back gains earlier onWednesday on renewed doubts on the ECB's scope for furthermeasures to fight the region's debt crisis.

The bank's leader Mario Draghi boosted hopes for strongmeasures to tackle the issue when he said last week he would doanything necessary to help the single currency.

The single currency is down nearly 5 percent against thedollar so far this year, hurt by the expanding euro zone debtcrisis, which has forced Portugal, Ireland and Greece to seekinternational aid and led to soaring borrowing costs in Spain.

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"ECB president Draghi's comments about doing whatever isnecessary to sustain the common currency have already boostedthe sector, prompting gold to move from around $1,580 an ounceto current levels of $1,620," RBS said in a report on Wednesday.

The euro zone's ESM rescue fund will be granted a bankinglicence, giving it enough fire power to head off the bloc's debtcrisis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Wednesday.

From a technical perspective, analysts at ScotiaMocatta saygold's unimpressive price performance since its break above$1,600 an ounce last week means it remains in consolidationmode, having traded in a $150 range for 3-1/2 months.

"The high on this move has only been 1629, which has so farfailed to surpass the June high of 1641," they said. "We remainneutral until we see a break of resistance at 1640 or belowsupport of 1602 (from the breached downtrend)."

Barclays Capital, meanwhile, indicated resistance at$1,630/1,640 and support at $1,600/1,590.

Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-tradedfund, the SPDR Gold Trust, rose 3.32 tonnes on Tuesday,date from the fund showed. That pared its monthly net outflowback to just over 27 tonnes, the biggest one-month drop in itsholdings this year.

Silver was down 2.3 percent at $27.26 an ounce, whilespot platinum was down 1.7 percent at $1,386.49 an ounceand spot palladium was down 0.8 percent at $581.03 anounce.